Snoop Dogg has a few choice words for Donald J. Sterling, embattled owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. Unfortunately, almost none of them are fit for publication in a family newspaper's blog. On the heels of an audio recording obtained by TMZ which the website says captures the Los Angeles business magnate upbraiding his girlfriend for “associating with black people” and “taking pictures with minorities” at Clippers games, the erstwhile Doggfather blasted Sterling with his own obscenity-packed videotaped rejoinder posted on Instagram on Saturday.

Charles Sumner 'Chuck' Stone Jr. Columnist and educator helped found association for black journalists Charles Sumner "Chuck" Stone Jr., 89, a longtime journalist and educator who was one of the founders of the National Assn. of Black Journalists, died Sunday at an assisted living facility in Chapel Hill, N.C., according to his daughter Allegra Stone. The cause was not given. Many who helped launch the association credited Stone as the driving force behind its founding, said its current president, Bob Butler.

It doesn't surprise me that a clown like Norris is heated up about an accurate military presentation. If enough people see and understand "Platoon," it might jeopardize his career as a communist exterminator. I'd be worried if I were him; or Stallone, or Schwarzenegger. I hope all vets boycott future movies that misrepresent soldiers as Johnny Rambos. "Rambo: First Blood Part II" stands as the last Stallone movie I will ever see.

At a very short (half-hour) panel for NBC's "Chuck," producers announced that former "Terminator" babe Linda Hamilton has been signed to play Chuck's spy mom. For Season 4, Hamilton will play a recurring guest-star role as Mary Bartowski, who vanished mysteriously from the life of Chuck ( Zachary Levi) when he was a boy. "Hamilton will appear throughout the season, leading Chuck to discover that her life was shrouded in secrets," according to a news release. "She was a spy, a CIA agent ... and that's just the beginning."

Women who believe that male playwrights ignore them might reconsider after seeing "How Much Would Chuck?" or "Albertine in Five Times." Although the style of the two plays could hardly be more different, both playwrights focus almost exclusively on the waste of women's lives. The women in Ebbe Roe Smith's "How Much Would Chuck?" waste their time in pursuit of a man--and this man is no prize. Chuck (Kyle Gass) is a chubby amnesiac.

In a universe in which nothing is really ever created or destroyed, there are only so many stories to tell; you can switch the atoms around, but most everything will look like something you've seen before. This week sees the premiere of two series so structurally alike they might have been created from the same "Mad Libs" page.

I watched them gather in small clusters around a desk. They wore expressions of shock and horror. One man who was seated gasped and looked as though he might pass out. They spoke in stunned whispers, then drifted like dream-walkers back to their own desks to stare once more into space and consider at some length the death of Chuck. I hadn't known his name even though for several months he sat not 20 feet from me, supervising a small group of Times Poll telephone callers in this office.

February 14, 2000 | JOHN MERONEY, John Meroney is an associate editor of the American Enterprise magazine

"You're not going to believe this," said George, bartender here at the Bel-Air Hotel for more than 40 years. And at first I didn't. But ever since New Hampshire, nestled in this oasis of refined elegance in the winding streets off Sunset Boulevard, late at night when everyone else has gone home, the ghosts of Ronald Reagan's "kitchen cabinet" meet here for cigars and martinis.

Russian troops are massing menacingly on Ukraine's eastern border. The civil war in Syria is still raging, and 33,000 American troops fight on in Afghanistan. So where is Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel headed this week? To Hawaii - for a meeting with defense ministers from Asia, the region the Obama administration still considers its top foreign policy priority. "Asia is one of the great success stories of the world," Hagel told me in an interview in his Pentagon office last week.

The headlines on the Pentagon budget unveiled by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week were all about austerity: the smallest U.S. Army since 1940; fewer aircraft, ships and armored vehicles; even some modest belt-tightening on future military pay and benefits. But one category of military spending largely escaped the budget ax: nuclear weapons. The United States has about 1,600 long-range nuclear weapons on active duty - more than any other country, including Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Well, that didn't take long. Barely 24 hours after confirming that longtime big band DJ Chuck Cecil and his "Swingin' Years" radio show would be leaving KKJZ-FM (88.1), representatives for the Long Beach station have announced Cecil's successor. The new host, who begins Feb. 15 in the weekend time slots occupied for the last 12 years by Cecil's long-running show, will be radio personality Johnny Magnus. According to a statement issued by the station, Magnus will "take over the 6-10 a.m. slot on Saturday and Sunday mornings and will continue to bring you Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, Count Basie and all the other great swing artists of the past.

Venerable jazz DJ Chuck Cecil and his long-running show "Swingin' Years" are leaving their Southern California radio home. As of Feb. 9, Cecil's famed big band music show will no longer be part of KKJZ-FM (88.1), or KJazz. Cecil broke off relations with the station, he said, because of repeated technical difficulties producing the show -- and because he feels it's time to start winding down the show he's produced, each week, for more than 50 years. "It really hurts me to stop, but I feel I can't continue and do justice to the musicians who made the music," Cecil said Monday.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management has agreed to purchase the Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant chain for $1.3 billion in cash and assumed debt, Apollo said in a news release. An affiliate of Apollo will pay $54 a share to acquire the pizza chain's parent company, CEC Entertainment Inc. The per-share price is 11.5% above CEC's closing price Wednesday -- and about 25% its close on Jan. 7, the day before reports surfaced that the company was preparing to be sold. "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Apollo, which maximizes value for all of our shareholders," CEC Executive Chairman Richard M. Frank said in a statement.

Indianapolis and San Diego are moving on in the NFL playoffs. And Sam Pagano is still catching his breath. His older son, Chuck, is coach of the Colts, who erased a 28-point second-half deficit Saturday to stun Kansas City. Sam's younger son, John, is defensive coordinator of the Chargers, who Sunday upset favored Cincinnati, 27-10, ending the Bengals' season with their first home defeat. About 1,200 miles west, a family erupted in celebration. "We're sitting here, my wife and I, and we're exhausted," the elder Pagano said from his home in Boulder, Colo.

November 21, 2012 | By Wesley Lowery and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times

Family members said Charlie Vanhager felt sorry for Chuck, a man in his 80s who lived in the Torrance senior citizens' home where she spent the last five years working as a manager. Because Chuck had no family and few friends, Vanhager made extra attempts to be nice, despite his abrasive remarks toward her and other staff members - even inviting him to her family's Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago. But about two years ago, the man's crass comments turned threatening. Family members said Vanhager reported his violent threats to upper management and took stress-related time off due to his harassment.

"Remembering the men, I give up on names and turn to body parts." The first line of Joan Hotchkis' solo show "Elements of Flesh" at Highways emphasizes the aptness of the piece's subtitle--"Screwing Saved My Ass." According to Hotchkis, a lissome 68-year-old who looks half her age, older people are actively discouraged from remaining sexually vital by disapproving family members--and society in general.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, in Afghanistan on Saturday for a previously unannounced visit, said he had been assured by Afghanistan's defense minister that a post-2014 bilateral security agreement would be signed soon. Hagel, who landed in Afghanistan in secrecy while on a scheduled trip to the Middle East, said the defense minister, Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, told him earlier Saturday that the stalemated 10-year agreement would be signed "in a very timely manner.

One evening in 1978, Hans and Nancy Benning attended a church social in the San Fernando Valley, but took a seat when the dancing began. That's when they met another non-dancing couple - Chuck and Charla Pereau - and the four of them got to talking about this and that. The Bennings told their new friends about how they met at a violin-making school in Germany and owned a music shop on Ventura Boulevard. The Pereaus had a pretty interesting story too. Chuck was an L.A. city fireman and Charla was a homemaker who also oversaw a Mexican orphanage that she and Chuck had established 10 years earlier, after adopting a Mexican child and making trips to Baja with donated church goods.